X-Rite wants to calibrate your tablet with ColorTRUE (VIDEO)

If you're a professional photographer, showing clients images on an iPad can save you from having to lug a laptop around with you. But one of the problems of a tablet for pro-level use is that they're not calibrated, so image color and range may not be accurate. But now X-Rite is planning to change that, and with the launch of an app on both Android and iOS promises to make your favorite mobile device that much more precise.

The program is called ColorTRUE, and it's available as a free download for both iOS and Android. It connects to your computer that has some of X-Rite's hardware and software installed, and then allows you to use the X-Rite calibrator on your mobile device. Not only does it create a calibrated profile, but the app also allows you to switch back and forth between a number of subtly tweaked versions of the profile.

For example, you can select the ambient light source to better show your images depending on if your outdoors, in an office, or elsewhere. You can choose between multiple different color spaces depending on what you're working with, you can alter the white point, and you can even show a print simulation based on different printer setups.

Unfortunately, these screen changes don't work system wide, so they'll only hold for when you're viewing images within the app itself. But X-Rite has also released an SDK, so app makers can port the calibration into their own software—so maybe future revisions of Snapseed or various Adobe applications will be able to run the corrected colors.

For now, this is what ColorTRUE works with a limited set of hardware. iOS phones and tablets support ColorMunki Smile, ColorMunki Display, i1Display Pro, and i1Pro 2, and Android phones and tablets support ColorMunki Display and i1Display Pro.

So next time you want to show a client some soft proofs of an image that you're working on, you can rely on a tablet to be as accurate as your computer screen.

(via PopPhoto)